Philly Future

August 31, 2005

Saw this NASA graphic earlier, it's a NASA simulation of New Orleans and what it would/will look like with more and more water inundating it. That is a flash animation. Click on the image above for an animated .gif of the same graphic in a popup window.

I can no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended for approval by the professional staff here, has been overuled.

Those were the words of Susan F. Wood, assistant FDA commissioner for women's health and director of the Office of Women's Health announcing her resignation after the FDA decided to delay a decision, this time indefinitely, over the approval of Plan B's availability to teens.

I think a person like Wood will find a place in another organization very soon.

Latoyia Figueroa's ex-boyfriend and accused killer Stephen Poaches will stand trial on two counts of murder in the first degree. Poaches' alleged confession, told to Det. Charles Boyle, was read aloud during the hearing.

I accidentally let the temper get the best of me, resulting in La'Toyia's death. We had an argument, a couple of blows.
She was hitting me on the shoulders and face. That's when I grabbed her neck to try and stop her from hitting me. I squeezed a little too long.
I panicked. I was going to move the body.

The article stated

Poaches allegedly told detectives he strangled her that day, and temporarily hid her body under his bed in his apartment in the 5800 block of Walton Avenue. Late that night, he wrapped her body in trash bags and dumped her in weeds in Chester with the help of another man, Boyle said Poaches told him.

From the Times-Picayune on how the flooding will only get worse, by Mark Schleifstein.

The catastrophic flooding that filled the bowl that is New Orleans on Monday and Tuesday will only get worse over the next few days because rainfall from Hurricane Katrina continues to flow into Lake Pontchartrain from north shore rivers and streams, and east winds and a 17.5-foot storm crest on the Pearl River block the outflow water through the Rigolets and Chef Menteur Pass.

The lake is normally 1 foot above sea level, while the city of New Orleans is an average of 6 feet below sea level. But a combination of storm surge and rainfall from Katrina have raised the lake's surface to 6 feet above sea level, or more.

All of that water moving from the lake has found several holes in the lake's banks - all pouring into New Orleans. Water that crossed St. Charles Parish in an area where the lakefront levee has not yet been completed, and that backed up from the lake in Jefferson Parish canals, is funneling into Kenner and Metairie.

Lake Pontchartrain's surface area is approximately 400,000 acres which is about 62.5 square miles, roughly half the size of the City of Philadelphia. Katrina has raised the water level five feet over the entire 62.5 square miles of the lake and it's all pouring into New Orleans which lies well below sea level. It won't stop until there's an equilibrium between the lake and the below sea level city of New Orleans.

The levees created to protect the city have burst and are now keeping the water in instead of out. They will not be patched up anytime soon, there are not enough resources.

August 30, 2005

The rain didn't stop the gang from coming out a few weeks ago and it didn't stop me from showing up at 10p to hoist one up with the stragglers. I heard there was a pretty good group outside in the rain that night too. A little rain ain't never hurt nobody. Join the crew at Tangier, 1801 Lombard St from 6p for free wings, $1 off drinks and general Liberal goodness.

This week, there are no shelves to be made nor closet rods to be buttressed, so I'm hoping to make it there closer to "on time" than last week.

A non-profit movie theater? Fellow blogger and one-day roommate [during Live8 Philadelphia] Brian Russell over at Audio Activism down in the Chapel Hill area of NC is hoping to open a non-profit movie theater. From his announcement:

Opening a movie theater is one of my oldest dreams. Please come out to see a great film and support the concept of a NONPROFIT movie theater. We’re working to raise interest and money to get this project rolling.

There wll be a screening of the documentary Monster Road about self-taught clay-mator Bruce Bickford from Bright Eye Pictures to support the concept of a non-profit movie theater. From BEP's website:

Entirely self-taught, the 57 year old Bickford works alone in a small basement studio in his house near Seattle. His films, especially the dark and magical clay animations he created for musician Frank Zappa in the 1970s, have achieved cult status worldwide, even though very little of his 40 year body of work has been edited or released to the public.

Monster Road explores this vast collection of animation, and also presents glimpses of the real life from which his fantastic imaginary worlds sprang.

The screening is Wednesday night and it is free to all. Details here. I've never seen any of Bickford's work, but I've always been a big fan of claymation and I'd love to see the film, especially in this kind of setting, but I'm all the way up here in Philly.

Projects like these will help shake up the movie houses out in Hollywood. They know that the shit that they're putting out is mostly shit. Congratulations to you Brian on starting this incredible initiative. I hope to support it in person in NC some day soon.

In his latest NY Times column, John Tierney [who looks like a sickly Regis] talks about hybrid cars and how they lead to more pollution. In VA and now, CA, some [not all] hybrid cars are allowed to be in the carpool/HOV lanes without having the requisite three or more total occupants. This was supposed to be an incentive for people to purchase these green cars. Tierney argues that there are now too many hybrids in the HOV lanes.

As traffic slows down, there will be more idling cars burning more gas and emitting more pollution, but politicians will be reluctant to offend hybrid owners by revoking their privilege. So it will be harder than ever to make the one change proven to speed up traffic and help the environment: convert the car pool lanes into what engineers call high-occupancy toll lanes.

These HOT lanes would be free for the truly virtuous commuters - those in car pools, jitneys and buses - and available to anyone else for a toll that would vary with demand. By enticing just enough drivers to maintain a steady flow of high-speed traffic, the HOT lanes could handle many more vehicles per hour than today's car pool lanes, which are usually either too empty or too congested to accommodate the optimum number.

With HOT lanes, everyone would come out ahead, drivers as well as environmentalists. As more drivers paid for a guaranteed speedy commute in the left lane, they would leave the regular lanes less clogged, so there would be fewer cars stuck in traffic jams, wasting gas and spewing fumes.

So, richer people driving their more expensive cars, not necessarily gas guzzlers, could just hop on over to the HOT lane and be "truly virtuous" by paying more money. Riight.

I remember reading somewhere that London either has already done something like this or is going to do so. NYC was thinking of doing this as well to cut down on the amount of cars on the roads. A 'rush hour' fee or something. But that was quashed when questions of tollbooths came up.

Where would the tolls be collected for Tierney's solution? When I had a car, I had EZPass. I loved the high speed lane by the GW Bridge in NY. But the lane[s] were only freely flowing at odd hours when there were generally less cars on the road or only in the 100 or so meters leading up to the actual booth, why? Because of all the people without EZPass clogging up the lanes not getting out of the way soon enough and basically, backing everything up even more.

The toll booths, wherever they were placed, would beget only more traffic for one reason or another. When an infrastructure is in place to not impede the normal flow of traffic and enable a cleaner/clearer path for those who wish to pay a premium for HOT lanes, I'll be more for it, but for now, this piece comes off as being more pro-classist and and anti-hybrid buyers.

And I'd also like to restate how the tax rebates for purchasing hybrids dwindles each year and I believe they shrink to zero in the next year or two while it remains easy to write off a 12/15 mpg Hummer for the "business purposes" of hauling one's ass to and fro their office to transport one's briefcase.

Some things are just so perfect. W, speaking to a group of seniors in El Mirage, AZ:

EL MIRAGE, Arizona (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Monday urged skeptical senior citizens to sign up for a new Medicare prescription drug benefit program, touting a choice of plans with monthly premiums as low as $20.

In a speech to a group of seniors at the Pueblo El Mirage RV Resort and Country Club, Bush urged Arizona's 780,000 Medicare beneficiaries to sign up for the new benefit in November.

The Health and Human Services Department said every state except Alaska would have such an inexpensive option, as well as pricier choices.

"This plan will cut your drug bills by half. You need to look at it, you need to look at what's available," Bush said.

He was telling them to look at this mirage. Why do I call it a mirage? Because his plans tend to not end up like what he makes them out to be. His energy bill. His environmental actions. His education reform. Social Security. And now, he's finally trying to address Medicare/Medicaid, a program that really does need some serious attention. And he offers up this mirage in the town of El Mirage. I was laughing out loud when I saw this.